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To your people, O God, grant that we may hear, that we may not be hearers of the word only, but doers also. Amen. Today the subject of the message is "Some Things I Learned at Home."

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In Deuteronomy, the sixth chapter, through the ninth verse, these words, using the Living Bible translation, "O Israel, listen. Jehovah is our God. Jehovah alone.

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You must love him with all your heart, soul, and might. And you must think constantly about these commandments I am giving you today. You must teach them to your children and talk about them when you are at home or out for a walk at bedtime and the first thing in the morning.

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Tie them on your finger. Wear them on your forehead and write them on the doorposts of your houses. These are the instructions for teaching and training God's family.

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It's called the Shema because the first word introducing this passage is the word Shema which means here in Hebrew. My grandmother would often say, "Did you hear what I said?" Then on other occasions she would say, "You better hear me."

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On this Sunday when we celebrate the festival of the Christian home and focus on Mother as the queen of the home, it is fitting to consider what God has to say concerning the family. We build gorgeous houses, restricted in exclusive areas with manicured lawns, but all of this

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does not make a home. Edgar Guest says, "It takes a heap of living to make a home. We can build a house in a matter of hours or days, but to make a home requires much more time."

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Some years ago, a book that became a bestseller was entitled "Things I Learned in Kindergarten." So I want to deal with the child before kindergarten because the influence of the home begins long

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before the child attends kindergarten. If we wait until the child reaches kindergarten, we are already late. The most dominant influence in the life of a person is the home. We live in a time when families want the school to be what we call in loco parentis.

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They want the school to be in the place of the parent. They want school to take full responsibility and do the things that the parent should do. But long before the child enrolls in kindergarten,

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the child begins to learn. The child is being shaped and guided in a given direction. So conception is the time to begin. Many parents know this.

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And they begin reading to their child before the child is born. This is kind of nurture, nurturing, nourishing and nurture that is essential

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in the development, wholesome development, I may add, of a child. Every child has a right to be wanted, to be well born. Every child has that right.

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The child does not select his or her parents or grandparents, these are predetermined. So during the prenatal period, the child is being shaped, becoming the kind of person that the child will be.

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It's a romance of becoming that begins at that early period. So I thought that as we focused on the family, to share with you some things I learned at home. First, I learned to obey.

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"Hear, O Israel, the Lord Yahweh is our God, our God alone." And over and over again, long before I enrolled in public school, I learned to obey. Many children today expect their parents to obey them,

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rather than to obey the parents. In other words, but early I learned that I could not have my way. I was subject to others who told me what to do

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and when to do it. They told me when to come and go, when to speak, and when to remain silent. So learning how to live involves being submissive,

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being obedient, and recognizing that you under a higher authority. Oh, I remember hearing the words, "Boy, as long as you stay in my house

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and eat my food, you're going to do what I say." Well, we've come a long way, we say. And some of us think that we've come so far

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that we don't need these commandments, these experiences that we had in our early development, but these experiences shaped us. They made us what we are today. I find it difficult to understand parents who confess that they are completely helpless in rearing their child.

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And you ask them how old the child is, and the child may be three or four years of age. And they say, I can't do anything with him. I learned in the family that when I cried for help,

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there was someone to respond. that my parents knew the difference between a cry of distress and a cry just for attention. When our children were babes and were put in the crib, sometimes they would cry a pretty good while before going to sleep.

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And the mother would say, "Just let her cry." And they learned to, so to speak, cry themselves to sleep. I learned in the family that there was someone who would hear a distressful cry. I learned that we were family.

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We were family. In that little house where we lived, there was mother, there was grandmother, there were others in that house. But we were all family, and we were kin, kin.

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And the family was not just limited to those that were in that particular dwelling, but we had other kinfolk. And so and so was your cousin.

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Sometimes it went on down, third, fourth cousin, and it gets so far. So, well, grandmama, who is-- she said, that's your cousin.

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Well, what cousin is she? I don't know, but she's kin. She's kin. So we had that kind of relationship.

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And we soon discovered at an early period that the family extended beyond our house. There was an extended family. There was Sister Maddie Brown, who

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would see me doing something, say, I'm going to tell your mother. And I knew that I was not to talk back to Sister Brown because if I did, I would meet something again

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when I arrived at home. We were kin and that kinship extended beyond the house to other neighbors in the community. That kinship extended in the church.

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That was another place where I discovered that the persons in the church were brother and sister. We've sort of gotten away from that now,

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but everybody was brother and sister. Brother and sister, we were related to one another in a different way in the church, in the way we were the family of God,

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we were the people of God, and we were related in that manner. Another thing I learned at home was to respect the rights of others. To respect the rights of others, particularly the rights of older people.

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Older people were people that we were to listen to. Whether you agreed with them or not, you listened to them and you respected them. And when you were wrong, they were around to correct you. And if you did not do so, you were considered what we call sassy.

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We don't hear that word much now. Well, sassy. Don't give me any back talk. That was what we learned at home.

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some don't learn that today. They wait until they are arrested in the criminal justice system, and then they learn what they can do and when they can do it.

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But many of us learn that at home. I know I'm not alone in this. And another thing I learned was that you can't always get what you want when you want it. That you must wait for it and in due time, many times,

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it will come. I learned that at home. I learned at home not to put more on your plate than you can eat. Do not put more on your plate. Do you know this food costs? And don't waste it. Don't put more on your plate than you can eat. Another thing I learned at home was to clean up your own mess. Clean up your own mess. I learned how to communicate, when to

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speak and when not to speak. You just don't burst into the house when there is company there and the two older people are talking. You don't burst in and begin taking over the conversation. I learned that at home. I learned what I was to say and what I was not to say. Richard Wright, who wrote a best-selling novel, "Native Son," in his

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autobiography, tells a story when he was very small, but he remembered it. His His grandmother was bathing him in an old tin tub. And she got to his buttocks and she was bathing him there. And he said to her, "When you get through back there,

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"kiss it." And she gave him a thrashing that he never forgot. He learned what to say and what not to say. I remember the first day I attended public school.

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We lived right beside the track. And in order for me to go to school, I had to cross the track. And I was afraid of this train that came by, puffing and huffing and steam being blown here and there.

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And I was afraid. I ran all the way back home. When I got there to the track and the train was there, my mother brought me back up there to the train and tried to get me to understand that the train was not going to leave the

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tracks and bother me. But I couldn't understand that. She tried to take me up to the train and I cried all the louder when she took me up to the train.

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So, but I learned in the course of time that if I were going to go to school that I'd have to learn to cross the tracks, that other children were learning and walking by the tracks, and so I had to learn to cross the tracks for myself. Every one of us has to learn that lesson.

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We have to learn to cross the tracks. Train may be huffing and puffing and the like, but we have to have the courage to cross the tracks because their opportunities and their benefits across the track that you'll never get stay on this side.

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So I learned, I learned that I had to cross the tracks. I learned that I was on my own. I was on my own. I had to look out for myself in certain ways that I was on my own and I was responsible.

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Last but not least, I learned that one must be honest in order to be developed as God intense for us to be that you must be honest, you must not steal, you must tell the truth. I was, I guess you call it, what do you call it today, a latch kid, because many times, latch kid, many times I was left at home alone, but I was told what I had to do.

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I had to wash the dishes. I had to bring in the wood. I had to sweep the house. I was to do all of those things.

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After I went to school, I'd come home and do these things before mother got back from her job. And those responsibilities were always there. Sometimes I'd go out and shoot marbles and get home just before mother was supposed to get home.

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I was supposed to wash the dishes. We had a wood stove and you had to build a fire to heat the water for the dishes to be washed in hot water. But I didn't have time, so many times I washed the dishes in cold water. But I learned that I had a responsibility to be done at a certain time, to be fulfilled

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at a certain time. Mother was not there. "Stay in the yard. When you come back from school, stay in the yard.

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Don't leave the house." But I remember one summer, there was a sunny boy who lived across the street. And I went over to visit with Sonny Boy. And Sonny Boy said, "Well, you know, Uncle Willie is not here and he has a trunk and

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in that trunk he has some money. Let's get in there." And so I said, "Yes, let's do that." So we went, we broke the lock, we got into the trunk, there was this can of money in

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there and we took it and we went to the Harlem Theater. Harlem Theater, I shall never forget the movie, I don't know what it was about, but the title of it was Gene Harlow and Reckless. But I could not really enjoy the movie because I was looking to see if I saw anybody that would recognize me and what I should

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do if I did and I could not enjoy I was glad when the movie was over and we got on the trolley and we went on back home and Uncle Willie came home that evening and discovered that somebody had broken into his trunk. He asked questions and And Sonny Boy told him, "I did it."

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I did it. I broke in. And so my mother came home and they came and reported to her. I heard them talking out in the front yard.

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I was trying to get as far back in the house as I could. And I heard them talking and she said, "Oh no, my son Marvin didn't do that." Oh, he wouldn't do a thing like that. No, no, you must be mistaken.

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Somebody else must have done, but not Marvin. He wouldn't do that. And she came and said, Marvin, come out here. They said, did you?

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Yes, ma'am. What? And I shall never forget the thrashing I received. Cassius Clay said that when he was fighting certain persons,

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that you don't give them a whooping. It wasn't a whipping, a whooping. A whooping. But I learned that one was to tell the truth

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and that you were not to take what is not yours. Some people never learn that. We go down to the courts dealing with criminal justice, and you sit there and you see case after case,

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and you wonder how it is that so many people come into this world and somehow miss these basic lessons. This I learned at home. Not a fabulous dwelling place.

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Humble home, humble shack. We moved about eight or nine times, maybe 10 times when I was in Dallas. We just moved.

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And one time we stayed in a place, you know what we call a shack that you just run all the way through? Shotgun, we called it, shotgun.

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All the way. But it's not so much the kind of dwelling you live in, it's what kind of life is being shaped and what values you embrace.

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And those values are things that shape our lives. And I learned this at home. But the most important thing, as I hasten on here, the most important thing I learned

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was that my mother introduced me to God. - Yes Lord. - Oh, we went to church. And we did like many children do today.

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We like to sit in the back, sort of be somewhat detached. And I remember Sister Dixon. Sister Dixon was an older lady, she dipped snuff.

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And when the pastor would move into high gear in his sermon, she started answering the pastor loudly and in rapid succession saying, "Amen, amen." But before he got to the highest point,

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she would take out her purse and take the money out of the purse and throw it, the purse, at the preacher. [LAUGHTER]

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And as children, we discovered this. And whenever she would be moving into that gear, we would take special note of Sister Dixon. And we would laugh.

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Oh, we thought that was so funny. We had these experiences. But as time went on, I soon learned to embrace this God that I had heard about at home, the God

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that I prayed to at breakfast time or dinner time. Boy, have you said your prayers? Did you ask your blessings? Stop.

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Don't you eat that food until you bless it. Ask God's blessings upon him. Well, that has a way of shaping your life. You can remember many things.

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We had a little potbelly stove there in the church and we had the fans and all of that in the hot weather. And then we had ushers who'd come with the fan if they saw you chewing gum

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and put the fan out in front of you to put the gum on it. And we laugh at that, but somehow, those things were shaping your life.

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You were learning discipline, you were learning order, you were learning obedience, you were learning the most important things in this life. Look at what's happened to Wall Street

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because people are dishonest. But we learn those things at home. We learn the importance of worshiping God. We learn that God will take care of you

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as has been pointed out in the lesson here for the children's hour. God cares for you, God loves you, and God will take care of you.

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So this word that I read from the scripture, Hear, oh Israel, hear that word. Hear this word about truth. Hear this word about honesty.

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Hear this word about making it on your own. Hear this word. Hear, because God is in this word. I recognized it when I was just a lad.

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One Sunday morning, God spoke to the preacher. I was just a youngster, but it gripped my heart and I came forth and gave God my heart and the preacher my hand.

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And I've been comforted by the word all along the way that God will take care of you. If you trust him, if you put your hand in God's hand, he'll never, never let you down.

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If you fall, he'll lift you up. if you trust in him. And it's that kind of faith that our ancestors have passed on to us.

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And we are all the better for it. As we come now to the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life.

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[applause] The door of the church is open. You may come by letter, on Christian experience, or on profession of faith to unite with the family of God here at Ebenezer. We invite you to come.

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It's an open door. Come. (music) Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling.

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[MUSIC] ♪ Calling for you and for me ♪ ♪ Sitting on the cornrows ♪ ♪ He's waiting and watching ♪

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♪ Watching for you and for me ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪

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♪ Ye who are weary ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Earnestly tenderly ♪ ♪ Jesus is coming ♪

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♪ Glory, oh, still I come home ♪ ♪ Why should we tarry when Jesus is leading ♪ ♪ Living for you and for me ♪ ♪ Why should we linger and heed not His mercies ♪

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♪ Mercies for you and for me ♪ ♪ The power of the wonderful love He has promised ♪ ♪ God is for you and for me ♪ ♪ For we have sinned ♪

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♪ He has mercy and pardon ♪ ♪ Pardon for you and for me ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪

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♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Come home ♪ ♪ Ye who are weary ♪ ♪ Come home ♪

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♪ Service me tenderly ♪ ♪ Jesus is calling ♪ ♪ Holy ♪ ♪ Oh sinner ♪

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Those persons who stood earlier celebrating birthdays this week, would you go now to the rear of the sanctuary? Those persons celebrating birthdays, join me here at the rear of the section.

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[ Background Noise ] Let us bow our heads. Lord God, we thank you for the teaching and training that we have received in the home, that godly teaching, that godly training.

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